Focusing on customers: Argenti Auto Body in business for 50 years

SHEFFIELD TOWNSHIP -- The Argenti family is not originally from the area, but after more than 50 years working in Lorain, they feel like they've been adopted.

"Through the years, we have met some of the best people in the world," said Bill Argenti, who founded Argenti Auto Body in 1962 after moving his family from Pennsylvania.

In a city where staying afloat seems like a constant struggle, Argenti Auto Body has beaten the odds, weathering many of the economic problems plaguing the area.

A focus on the customer has kept people coming to the shop at 4381 Elyria Ave., Sheffield Township, said Greg Argenti, Bill's son who runs the business.

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"Once you get them through the door, you have to respect them and their needs," Greg Argenti said. "You have to go beyond just the repair of the vehicle."

The business has three generations of Argentis working at the shop now and its 83-year-old founder still comes to work everyday, Greg Argenti said.

The auto body shop has evolved since its creation in order to stay relevant in a world where a business can no longer do only one job.

The business has had to reduce staff while expanding its range of services, Greg Argenti said.

"We learned how to be more efficient," he said.

Argenti still focuses on collision repair, but it now also does detailing, air conditioning servicing, some mechanical repairs and windshield fixes.

The majority of the shop's work comes from insurance companies, Greg Argenti said. Though the shop has refused to be a Direct Repair Program with any insurance company because the Argentis feel the requirements from the insurance companies are not beneficial to them or customers.

"You have to agree to certain concessions, discounts and gratis work," Greg Argenti said. In order to do that, the company would have to cut corners.

"We don't want to compromise the quality of our work," he said.

Bill Argenti moved to Lorain to be near his brothers not long after returning from the Korean War.

He used his GI bill to learn the trade and after a few years of working decided to try his hand at his own shop.

"Lorain was such a boomtown in the 50s," Bill Argenti said. "They came up in flocks then."

His first location was a two car garage behind the family's home on East 29th Street, but later moved to a 4165 Elyria Ave. before finally ending up at the current location in the late 1980s.

After all those years, the business has stayed interesting.

"Every account has a story," Greg Argenti said.

The Argentis have heard it all; from the woman who placed her car in drive instead of reverse and smashed through her garage wall, to the dozens of men who blamed their wife or children for the damage they did, to a jittery customer who smashed into a telephone pole across the street from the auto body shop immediately after getting a car repaired.

The stories and their past experiences with customers help them understand the needs of the people who come through the door, Greg Argenti said.

While vehicles have become safer and insurance companies have become less troublesome to deal with, Greg Argenti said the shop has never faltered from its focus on helping the customer.

For Bill Argenti, it has been the locals who have made the job worthwhile.